Sean started using heroin when he was 14. He first began abusing alcohol at the age of 12, closely followed by cannabis and ecstasy. He first used heroin to come down off ecstasy.
By the time he was 15 he had become a career criminal and heroin addict.
"I was completely strung out on heroin about six months after the first time I used it. My head was f . . ked up because of it and I'd get sick if I didn't have it."
Aged 16 he was persuaded by his mother to seek help and he engaged the services of a local GP. A detoxification programme followed but he soon relapsed and began using heroin again. Between the ages of 16 and 18 he detoxed a number of times and was put on methadone maintenance.
"Methadone stabilised me, I was as happy as Larry. The chaos of having to thieve all the time to get gear was gone, so the crime end of things stopped. But then I'd start drinking again, going dancing, doing a few Es and before I knew it I'd be back on the gear.
"I was having a relationship with heroin and there was no room for anything else. When you're spaced out on it you haven't a care in the world. The only thing you have to think about is where you are going to get your next fix. When you are on methadone it does the exact same as heroin does. But you don't even have to worry about your next fix because you're getting free drugs." He says he only broke out of the cycle when he gained a place on a residential detoxification programme at a centre in the midlands earlier this year. He is now 23.
"At least there you do group work, you do things like art. It puts something back in your life and that is very important because when you are a heroin addict the only thing in your life is heroin. So when you come off it there is nothing.
"When I went into the residential centre I had been on methadone for about six months, because they wouldn't take you if you were on heroin.
"When I was coming off the methadone in the centre it was tough. It's hard to explain, but the stuff gets into the marrow in your bones, it gets completely into you. It doesn't help you get off drugs because it is drugs.
"So when I was coming off it I just stayed up all night for two and a half weeks and cried. I'd think of my Ma and just cry, and I didn't know why. I'd wonder how my sister was getting on and I'd cry. It was a terrible time.
"It wasn't until I did a bit of work on myself and had a look at why I kept going back to heroin that I got away from it all. I realised I buried my emotions for all the time I was on the gear. Even with the methadone it just numbs you, you don't have any feelings.
"I'm doing a course now and I have a little plan. I want to go to college and fill my life with a bit of knowledge. But I know heroin is just around the corner if I want it. So it's going to be hard."
Conor Lally